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Take a look at the comic pictured above - I remember buying it back in 1971 (my original copy that is), probably on the 25th September, as comics were usually dated a week ahead of when they actually went on sale. (It's difficult to be certain in every instance - sometimes it was just a few days.) I'd religiously bought all 22 issues of JET and wished it had lasted longer, but I was prepared to follow its incorporated incarnation in BUSTER - at least for a while.
I no longer recall how long I continued to buy the merged title, but as I said, I remember having the first one. I'm surprised by the date, because only eight months later, my family (and myself of course) moved to another house in another neighbourhood. Only eight short months? Surely it was a year or three at the very least? But no - eight short months it was! A year and five days after this comic came out, I was buying the first issue of The MIGHTY WORLD Of MARVEL, yet it seems to me that there was a huge gulf of time between the two comics, not a mere year.
I'm constantly surprised by such things. Another example is the first ish of TV ACTION (in reality COUNTDOWN #59), which came out only a couple of months before we moved. Yet, in my mind, it seems I bought it ages earlier, and enjoyed life in that house for ever such a long time before we flitted. I've touched on this subject in previous posts, and suggested it's because we tend to associate things (whether they be toys, comics, or whatever) that we had in one domicile with the entire time we lived there, rather than from the actual moment we first got them.
In other words, if you lived somewhere for seven years and bought something a couple of months before flitting, years later (when reminiscing) it often seems that you had the item for the full seven years, because you associate it with that particular house and the length of time you were there. Or maybe it's just because when we're younger, a few weeks or months seems like a much longer period of time than when we're older. After all, a month before Christmas to a kid feels like an eternity, whereas, to an adult, it passes far too quickly.
At least that's how it seems to me. Perhaps you think I'm talking utter b*ll*cks, so I'd be interested in reading how my fellow Criv-ites regard such matters. Does it likewise seem to you as I described, or, in your case, is it completely different? Let rip in the comments section - if you can actually understand what the hell I'm burbling on about. I have a feeling I've not conveyed it too well.
I've read somewhere that the human brain perceives time more slowly when processing unfamiliar experiences, which is why when you're a child, a summer feels like an eternity. As we grow older, we tend to experience fewer new things, so it feels like time is passing faster. Apparently this is why the journey home from somewhere always feels quicker than the journey there!
ReplyDeleteI've no idea if this is correct, but I do like the feeling that my childhood days seemed longer because my brain was subconsciously studying every tiny aspect of them - if only I could find a way to retrieve all that info!
That makes a lot of sense, DS. I've speculated before that time may seem longer when we're younger because everything makes more of an impression on us, which is essentially what you're saying. I really do wish time would slow down though, 'cos it's going by far too quickly for me at the moment. The last 30 years feel like only about three or four to me.
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